Topic 2: Employer Subsidies and Incentives - closed

It can be a huge loss to lose an employee and it may become necessary to reassign duties to other workers or even bring in a replacement. Offering employers wage subsidies for workers or for accommodations is a promising strategy for facilitating return-to-work.

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Employer Subsidies and Incentives Online Dialogue

This national online dialogue will explore what it would take for states to develop initiatives or programs, or institute policy changes, that support workers in the transition back to work.

State policies and strategies in the RTW area can play an important role in ensuring that there is a support for the worker's transition back to work. This includes employer incentives (both within the workers’ compensation system and more broadly), which can include wage subsidies, reimbursements or subsidies for workplace modifications and accommodations, or incentives such as the Ohio transitional work bonus program, which rewards employers for successful completion of a transitional return-to-work program.

Among other purposes, what we learn here will be used to guide the work of a SAW/RTW Policy Working Group to develop resources and materials to assist states and other key stakeholders in improving services to injured or disabled workers.

As you submit your ideas or comment and vote on ideas submitted by others below, please keep the following guiding questions in mind:

Transition Back to Work

Providing light duty or part-time work, and partial disability payments during the transition back to work, can encourage workers to return earlier, minimizing the likelihood they will drop out of the workforce.

It can be a huge loss to lose an employee and it may become necessary to reassign duties to other workers or even bring in a replacement. Offering employers wage subsidies for workers or for accommodations is a promising strategy for facilitating return-to-work.

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Washington COHE Model

What would it take to adopt/adapt key components of the COHE model to address your state’s workers’ compensation program challenges? (Please consider the required policy changes, the key players that would need to be convinced, and the supports, resources or materials that would help address their concerns and overcome barriers.)